Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Getting What You Deserve

What do we deserve? We often
talk about people deserving what they get in life, which can be seen either
positively or negatively. We believe that someone who behaves a certain way and
follows certain rules deserves to be rewarded. We believe someone who hurts
others and goes against those rules deserves to be punished. In either case
there is a sense that we should receive something, positive or negative, based
on what we do and how we behave.

The Popular View

Let’s take a couple of examples.
Suppose Rhonda grows up in a difficult home situation, but due to some inner
resolve, works hard in school, makes it to college, and starts her career. Most
people would root for her, wanting to see her succeed. They feel she is
deserving of monetary and other rewards. They want to see her get what she
deserves.

Now let’s consider Sharon,
growing up in a similar situation, but from an early age, she blames her life
situation for the reason she is not successful. She does poorly in school,
eventually gets into drugs and commits a robbery in order to get money for
drugs. She gets caught and is sent to jail. Most people would see her life as a
failure. They feel she is deserving of her punishment. They want to see her get
what she deserves.

But who decides what each of us
deserves in this life? In our examples above, there seemed to be some set of
rules that when followed makes us deserving of reward, and when not followed
makes us deserving of punishment. But where do these rules come from? For most
of us growing up in this world, these rules come to us through our parents, our
friends, our church, our legal system, the media, and anywhere else we listen
to others to learn how to behave.

As we make these rules our own,
we begin to believe that if we follow the rules, we deserve certain rewards in
our lives. These rules and rewards will vary from person to person, since not
everyone agrees on the same set of rules. We will also believe that if we
consistently violate these rules, we are worthy of some kind of punishment,
whether that punishment is externally applied or is expressed as internal
feelings of guilt.

In reality, what often happens
is that as we try to meet these rules and expectations, the rewards are never
as much as we had hoped. And conversely the punishments we receive may seem to
be more harsh than we deserve. It’s ultimately a game of frustration trying to
get rewards from life and trying to avoid punishments.

The Course in Miracles View

In A Course in Miracles
we discover a different way to see this whole process. In the Course, it all
begins with the Oneness of the Mind of God. Somewhere, somehow within this
Mind, the illusory idea of separation occurs. That idea is explored and played
out in all its many forms and variations, until we reach the illusory world we
now believe we inhabit – individual bodies living in a world of form.

This world is just an imaginary
idea within our minds, and the part of our minds that maintains this illusion
we call the ego. The ego’s task is to convince us the separation is real, and
it uses whatever it can, including fear and guilt, and physical pleasure and
pain. One of the ways it does this is to try to convince us there are rules we
must follow to achieve happiness in our lives. Those rules might be religious
in context or more secular.

For example, in the religious
context, something like the Ten Commandments gives a basic set of rules we are
told to follow. If we do, there is the promise of having both a happier life in
this world and the possibility of reaching Heaven in the afterlife. If we
violate these rules in some way, there are punishments awaiting us as well.

In a more secular example,
someone might have a basic humanist philosophy, who believes that through
altruistic actions we are more fulfilled and we are more likely to receive
kindnesses from others. If this person fails to follow through with some
actions, they may feel guilty at not living up to the image of the kind of
person they want to be.

In both of these instances there
is the sense that by following the rules we operate under, we are deserving of
a reward. If we fail to follow these rules we deserve some kind of punishment.
In any case, it’s the ego who is setting the rules for this life, and it is the
ego that will ultimately trap us in those rules, finding failure no matter how
hard we try.

The ego is whispering in our
ears that we deserve more from life, and at the same time that we are not
really worthy of more and should be punished in this life. This great confusion
is the ego’s tool for making sure we continue to see the separation.

The Course also offers us a way
out through forgiveness. In this particular case, we must forgive all the
myriad outside influences that created the rules we operate by. This includes
our parents, the church, the media, the government, even our friends who
influence us. One by one if you identify the source of a rule in your mind, you
can call on the Holy Spirit to forgive that entity and thereby release that
rule from its influence over you.

In addition, you need to forgive
yourself for believing you deserved these earthly rewards or for believing you
deserve some punishment for your behavior. Once again call upon the Holy
Spirit, the antidote to the ego, and release these feelings of expected reward
and punishment. What you ultimately will be left with is a life without rules,
a life of simple, pure Being.

What do you really deserve?

Our ego selves will continue to
argue that we are deserving of rewards and punishments as we go through life in
this world. Without these rewards and punishments, life, according to the ego,
would not be worth living. Society would completely fall apart. The certainty
of the decisions we make would disappear. Complete chaos would be the result.

But from the point of view of
the Course, you don’t deserve any rewards in the illusionary world we live in.
And you don’t deserve any punishment in this world either. You don’t deserve
anything in this world. What you deserve is to be free of these illusions
through forgiveness and connecting with the Holy Spirit. What you deserve is
complete union with the Mind of God. What you deserve is Love and Peace and a
return to your Natural Loving State within that Great Oneness.

2 comments:

Well, I realized after the last read that you posted these in March of 2016 - and time isn't real, so I'm still glad you posted this (today...hee hee)....again, your posting has offered me much more than weekly visits, and yet, I will sit and peacefully find my way to be me, free of these illusions, and in union'ship' with the Heart and Mind of God.Thank you.....